The invention relates generally to floatable chlorinating devices which contain chlorinating medium, such as chlorine tablets, and float on the surface of a body of water, such as a pool. More specifically, the present invention provides a powered floatable chlorinating apparatus consisting of a floatable chamber which receives and contains the chlorine medium and dispenses solubilized chlorine into water entering into and dispersing from the chamber. A motor, operably associated with the floatable chamber, drives the floatable chamber randomly about the surface of the body of water.
The vast majority of swimming pool owners use chlorine to maintain the swimming pool water free of bacteria and provide a safe and hygienic swimming atmosphere. There are a wide variety of ways to introduce chlorine into swimming pool water. The simple and most inexpensive solution is to manually chlorinate the water by introducing liquid or granulated chlorine directly into the water, or by introducing tabular or granular chlorine into the skimmer baskets associated with the pool equipment. This manual chlorination is a satisfactory means for chlorinating the pool water, but is frequently neglected by swimming pool owners. Numerous types of water propelled floating pool chlorinators are known in the art. Examples of such devices are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,684,460 issued to H. M. Arenson on Aug. 15, 1972 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,276 issued to W. D. Bond, et al. on Sept. 11, 1973. Each of these chlorinating apparatus are characterized by a floatable body having at least one chamber for holding chlorine tablets depending from the floatable body such that the chlorine tablets are exposed by the pool water. In each of these apparatus, the floatable body is tethered to a source of pressurized water, such as a pressurized return, typically used with a variety of widely used automatic swimming pool cleaners. The pressurized water from the source is conducted to the floatable body whereupon, the chlorinating apparatus emits a water jet which propels the apparatus around the surface of the swimming pool. The principal disadvantages of these types of chlorinating apparatus are that they require the fluid conduit tether which obstructs the swimming area, and, therefore, cannot be used in swimming pools which do not use the required water pressure cleaning system, and are unsightly.
It has been determined, therefore, that to overcome these disadvantages of the prior art, it is desirable to provide a free-floating, self-propelled chlorinating apparatus. One attempt to provide such an apparatus is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,707 issued to Thomas, et al. on Jan. 17, 1989. In that patent there is disclosed a sailboat chlorine dispenser consisting of a small sailboat-shaped floatable body, having a keel depending from the body and a chlorine tablet chamber depending from the lower end of the keel. The chlorine tablet chamber consists generally of a circular chamber having a plurality of vertical slots provided about the circumference of the chamber, each of the slots have an associated spring-loaded door which opens in response to the flow of water past the chamber. The sole means for creating a flow of water past the chamber is air flows against the sails on the floatable body. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art, however, that without wind, there is no driving force to impart motion to the floatable body. Hence, there will be no water flow past the vertical slots. Accordingly, only localized areas of the pool will be exposed to chlorine, and the very purpose of the chlorinating apparatus will be defeated. Moreover, the arrangement of spring-loaded doors associated with the vertical slots is cumbersome to manufacture, and complex and unreliable in use.